A model for the dynamic friction behaviour of rubber-like materials

Abstract Rubber friction has received much attention because of its practical importance for modelling, for example, tyre-road friction. Many experiments were carried out and a number of theories were proposed to investigate and explain its behaviour and dependency on external conditions such as temperature and velocity. However, only a few published articles describe the observed dynamic friction behaviour using compact analytical models. Models for dry friction, such as the Dahl and LuGre models and their several variations, have been proposed to describe rubber friction. Unfortunately, they cannot reproduce many important and specific phenomena observed in experiments focused on rubber friction. In this paper, we propose a simple analytical friction model suitable to simulate the dynamic friction behaviour of rubber-like materials on rigid surface. Phenomena such as pre-sliding, sticking/sliding transitions, relaxation of the friction force at standstill and stick-slip effects can be accurately modelled. We validated the model with several experiments, obtaining a good agreement between simulation and measurements. In addition, we propose a two-dimensions (2D) extension of the model, to broaden the field of cases, in which it can be used. The capability of the model to simulate 2D anisotropic friction behaviour was validated with measurements of a vehicle tyre.